A Fly On My Homeschool Wall

I have worked hard to convince myself that expensive lessons outside of our home are luxuries rather than necessities.  First, they make our days too frantic, and second, they cost too much money.  Though I would love to indulge every extra-curricular whim of my children's hearts, I cannot. I tell myself it is good for us to not get everything we want . . . I remind myself that we have luxuries about which some people only get to dream . . . I am firmly convinced that we have our whole lives before us in which to live, and if we miss some opportunities as children, there are years of adulthood yet ahead . . . But that was before J9 had her first horseback riding lesson. Several years ago a member of our homeschool group organized several (deeply discounted) sessions of group trail riding for one age bracket and half hour sessions riding a horse on a lead around the corral for a younger age bracket.  E12 was old enough to go out on the trail, while S10 and M10 happily sat

E12 had her first guitar lesson last night.  She got the guitar for Christmas a year ago.  We tried book and video tutorials--borrowed from the library--but they just didn't help.  The guitar was relegated to the top shelf of the closet after only a couple of months. Last month I was inspired.  There's a youth in our ward who plays the guitar very well.  He's preparing to serve a mission, so he's on the hunt for work of any kind.  He's a ballet teacher, so he's used to teaching.  I asked him if he'd be willing to teach E12. We struck a deal (in which I am woefully underpaying him, but hope to remedy that soon). He showed up promptly and prepared. I was impressed. In spite of the chaos of getting the rest of the family off to a college basketball game to which they were invited at the last minute, he was poised and pleasant. I was impressed again. He's customizing the lessons to fit her interests. I am impressed even more. The only probl

This little girl loves life! The frame of our preschool is the alphabet--one letter at a time we explore fun crafts.  Preschool is an excuse to make sure I give H3 some special attention each day.  She knows the alphabet, and she can count accurately at least to 10, but probably higher.  She can write her own name and can copy anything we hand her.  She loves to paint, cut, color, and do whatever she sees her big sisters do.  She is incredibly verbal and hilariously funny!  She can make me laugh when she wants to without fail!!! She is rather naughty during family prayer and scripture time each night (What to do?  What to do?), but during A5's devotional time she is an active participant.  She's memorizing scriptures, poems, and songs, and she loves the scripture stories I read. She helps me cook and clean--last night she washed dishes for at least half an hour.  She listens to great stories every afternoon and at bedtime.  She goes on nature outings with us.  She loves c

She is one of the brightest parts of my life.  Five-year-olds are just so special to me!  This little girl loves to do preschool with her little sister.  She loves her reading lessons; she is doing great!  We used Sonlight K reading/language arts for most of the year and she just thrived on it.  In addition we read lots of early readers on our own and she reads at least 1 verse a day from the Book of Mormon.  I think she is reading far beyond her years.  This year we are moving on to Sonlight Language Arts 1, and we will keep the additional reading and Book of Mormon reading.  It's working! As for the rest of school, I'm not worried about it.  We read fun library books on science, history, math, geography--every subject imaginable.  At night I read aloud to her from chapter books like All-of-A-Kind Family, A Grain of Rice, A Bear Called Paddington, Mr. Popper's Penguins, etc.  She plays math games on the computer and learns songs and games from PBSkids.org.  Over the Chri

She was only 8 throughout the year, but her birthday really did come and go right as the year changed. Why does 9 feel so  much older than 8? She is my academic girl.  She loves reading and writing, and when I handed her the workbook that is taking the place of real school for the next couple of months she cheered.  When she's reading, writing, or doing arithmetic, she can hear nothing else.  It takes multiple aggressive attempts to get her attention when she is lost in the world of learning. I see myself in her--the good things. I failed to write about copywork/dictation in the older girls' assessments.  This area is dropped for the time being, but it is one in which we have been faithful for the past year or two.  She is careful, so her handwriting and spelling are beautiful.  She works slowly, so I get to practice patience.  I believe it is a valuable tool for teaching spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style.  I can see the benefits in J9's writing--but she cou

My sweet S10 is incredibly social and optimistic.  She loves to talk and talk and talk--all people are potential friends.  She is quite bright and her hearing is acute . . . as long as she's interested in what is going on. :) Language Arts : This girl reads!  She is my best kid at following the "after baths you should be reading a book or writing in a journal" rule.  We can hardly keep her stocked because she flies through books at a rapid pace.  Her favorites are fantasies (Fablehaven, Warriors, etc.), but she's willing to give other books a try.  She finished her NaNoWriMo novel first draft and is currently working on entering it into the computer for editing.  She has a good ear for irony and humor, and her story is peppered with one-liners that make me laugh.  She's entering a local spelling bee this spring--she's a good speller! Math: She's loving working through the elementary series of Life of Fred.  She'd like to go faster, bu

My darling little M10 has the heart of a servant.  She loves to give and serve and help.  I don't think there can be any better description of a person than that.  Her special mission this past year or so was (and still is) making baby blankets for expectant moms.  On any given Sunday you can see evidence of her handiwork and love wrapped around babies of various ages. Language Arts: My darling girl has stopped reading for pleasure.  Why?  She hasn't given me a good answer for it--just that "reading is boring."  We've tried dozens of books, and she never finishes any of them.  Her most focused interest was on babysitting and infant/child first aid and CPR.  She read and took notes and basically completed a self-designed babysitting training course.  She did such a good job on her first babysitting job (pulling out a questionnaire and filling it out before the parents left then caring for the baby just beautifully) that they called me to tell me how wonderful sh

E12 still does not love school.  I have not given up hope that she ever will love school, but I'm awfully close. She is so bright! She is so talented! She is so exciting!  I was about to write that I pray for her to love learning and see her talents, but I realized as I wrote that I haven't been praying for her about these concerns . . . and I think I shall begin this year. Language Arts: She sure reads!  She loves fantasies, but she's also been working on some more challenging material from The Well-Trained Mind 7th grade reading list.  She understands what she reads and can converse intelligently when engaged.  She still tries to back off from literary conversation with, "I dunno.  That's just what I think."  But when pressed she can give concrete examples from the books to back up her opinion. We participated in NaNoWriMo this year; though our illness in November prevented us from completing our goals.  I've promised the girls that if they fi